WHAT WERE COMMON MEDICAL BELIEFS, PRACTICES, PROCEDURES, AND MEDICINES IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? HOW WERE THESE DIFFERENT IN NOBLE/MERCHANT/COMMON LIFE? WHAT, IF ANY, MEDICAL DISCOVERIES OR ADVANCEMENTS WERE MADE DURING SHAKESPEARE’S LIFETIME?
Answer prepared by: Joey H.
In the Elizabethan Era, treatment for diseases and common illnesses were either insufficient or useless. In the 1500’s medicine was still in a Middle Ages stage. The doctors believed in the four humors. This theory, as stated by Liza Picard in her book Elizabeth’s London, was that there were four main elements in the body: blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy (102). Fevers were results of an imbalance of humors. Bloodletting was popular to get rid of bad blood or to create a balance of the humors. Leeches were also used for these purposes, says Jeffery L. Singman in his book ElizabethanEngland (53). People eventually started to question this theory when it was extremely evident that it did not work (Picard 102). Christians believed that there was a natural cure for everything and that God left clues for them to find (Picard 103). To them an orchid looked like a testicle, so it cured venereal diseases. These cures for diseases were extremely pointless and ineffective and they later had no help for the plague.
The Plague was a huge epidemic because of insufficient cures and unsanitary conditions. In the Elizabethan times, nothing was sanitary. Rats roamed the streets and nearly no one had the indoor bathrooms that we now take for granted. Conditions such as these led to a wonderful environment for the plague to spread. The plague is a disease that travels on bugs that feed on rats. When a rat host dies these dangerous insects need to find a new home. If there are no rats nearby, a human will do. When the bugs bite the human, the disease is transferred to them (Picard 92). Suggested cures for the plague were to pluck a chicken and hold it to a bubo or swelling caused by the disease. This was supposed to extract the poison from the bubo. Some action was taken to stop the plague from spreading, though. The infected would be quarantined with their family in their home with a sign on their door which read “Lord have mercy upon us,” (Picard 92). The clothes and bedding used by the person were burnt, which was not a good thing for the family because they needed old clothes to be passed down. The plague was a large epidemic, but surely would not have spread so much without the bad sanitation and lack of medical treatment.
The lack of good treatment would start to get better as new discoveries were made. William Harvey finally found out how blood flows through the body, advancing our knowledge of the human body (Lace 76). Andreas Vesalius discovered that Galen, a Greek physician, had made incorrect assumptions. Galen had been restricted by Rome from dissecting human bodies. He decided to dissect animals instead. He made assumptions from this, which were widely accepted until Vesalius came along. Vesalius’s work led him to write a seven volume illustrated book about the human body (Lace 76). This paved the way for Harvey to make his discoveries. Although not much was know about medicine, many assumptions were made. Eventually, these assumptions were proved wrong. After that, medicine could move forward.
Works Cited
Lace, William. Elizabethan England. Farmington Hills, MI: The Thomson Corporation, 1995. 76-80. Print.
WHAT WERE COMMON MEDICAL BELIEFS, PRACTICES, PROCEDURES, AND MEDICINES IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? HOW WERE THESE DIFFERENT IN NOBLE/MERCHANT/COMMON LIFE? WHAT, IF ANY, MEDICAL DISCOVERIES OR ADVANCEMENTS WERE MADE DURING SHAKESPEARE’S LIFETIME?
Answer prepared by: Joey H.In the Elizabethan Era, treatment for diseases and common illnesses were either insufficient or useless. In the 1500’s medicine was still in a Middle Ages stage. The doctors believed in the four humors. This theory, as stated by Liza Picard in her book Elizabeth’s London, was that there were four main elements in the body: blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy (102). Fevers were results of an imbalance of humors. Bloodletting was popular to get rid of bad blood or to create a balance of the humors. Leeches were also used for these purposes, says Jeffery L. Singman in his book Elizabethan England (53). People eventually started to question this theory when it was extremely evident that it did not work (Picard 102). Christians believed that there was a natural cure for everything and that God left clues for them to find (Picard 103). To them an orchid looked like a testicle, so it cured venereal diseases. These cures for diseases were extremely pointless and ineffective and they later had no help for the plague.
The Plague was a huge epidemic because of insufficient cures and unsanitary conditions. In the Elizabethan times, nothing was sanitary. Rats roamed the streets and nearly no one had the indoor bathrooms that we now take for granted. Conditions such as these led to a wonderful environment for the plague to spread. The plague is a disease that travels on bugs that feed on rats. When a rat host dies these dangerous insects need to find a new home. If there are no rats nearby, a human will do. When the bugs bite the human, the disease is transferred to them (Picard 92). Suggested cures for the plague were to pluck a chicken and hold it to a bubo or swelling caused by the disease. This was supposed to extract the poison from the bubo. Some action was taken to stop the plague from spreading, though. The infected would be quarantined with their family in their home with a sign on their door which read “Lord have mercy upon us,” (Picard 92). The clothes and bedding used by the person were burnt, which was not a good thing for the family because they needed old clothes to be passed down. The plague was a large epidemic, but surely would not have spread so much without the bad sanitation and lack of medical treatment.
The lack of good treatment would start to get better as new discoveries were made. William Harvey finally found out how blood flows through the body, advancing our knowledge of the human body (Lace 76). Andreas Vesalius discovered that Galen, a Greek physician, had made incorrect assumptions. Galen had been restricted by Rome from dissecting human bodies. He decided to dissect animals instead. He made assumptions from this, which were widely accepted until Vesalius came along. Vesalius’s work led him to write a seven volume illustrated book about the human body (Lace 76). This paved the way for Harvey to make his discoveries. Although not much was know about medicine, many assumptions were made. Eventually, these assumptions were proved wrong. After that, medicine could move forward.
Works Cited
Lace, William. Elizabethan England. Farmington Hills, MI: The Thomson Corporation, 1995. 76-80. Print.
Picard, Liza. Elizabeth's London. London: weidenfield & nicolson, 2003. 89-109. Print.
Singman, Jeffrey. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., 1995. 52-53. Print.